476 ON SPECIES 



long leaved stirps, what a different thing we should have 

 had. I do think habit a perfect snare with many people ; 

 we stereotype an ideal habit and refer everything to it. Of 

 the many people ready to swear and declare that they can 

 never mistake an Oak, Beech, &c., &c., by habit, how many 

 can prove their words ? 



You say that we are not to pronounce species the same 

 because they are united apparently by certain forms of each 

 I grant this fully, but how are we to act upon it and deny 

 local Botanists specific value to their small fish ? This is no 

 good argument ; a better one is, that we do not know which 

 is the originally created state that you call the type, or that 

 I call the connecting form. E.G., You may say Cedar and 

 Deodar are distinct though apparently united by a few 

 exceptional forms of each. I say no, the exceptional inter- 

 mediate forms present no new character different from 

 either. The original type cedar was intermediate in character, 

 but is extinct, one extreme form is retained, driven to the 

 top of Mount Libanus, and hence called Libani. Another 

 extreme form is retained in the humid Himalaya. We 

 cultivate the Libanus stirps which retain to a certain degree 

 its rigid character, but often lose it. We also cultivate 

 the Deodar stirps, and because beautiful we propagate by 

 cuttings from the states most typical of Deodar, i.e. most 

 extremely unlike Cedar, and propagate the error by artificial 

 means. 



Kew : March 24, 1854. 



DEAR GRAY, Very many thanks for your capital long 

 letter, which begins by agreeing with me that, ' the subject 

 does not admit of close reasoning ' ; and goes on with as 

 pretty a specimen of admirable close, clear, and accurate 

 reasoning as I ever wish to peruse. I only wish you had 

 taken up the subject instead of me, for you throw out your 

 grapnels with a judgment and precision that put my loose 

 ratiocination (is that the word ?) to shame. You must 

 (probably do) know that I am one of those cross grained 

 fellows who, after building up a tall tottering castle, get 

 sick of it and can't bear a kind friend coming to prop it up ; 

 neither do I like an enemy to knock it down ; so there is 

 no pleasing me but by praising my castle in the abstract, 

 whether it stands or falls. 



